ABSTRACT
This chapter unpacks the celebratory narratives that surround the indie cult history (of tape-to-tape transfers, home video party screenings, to finding its way onto Nirvana’s tour bus and the fringes of auteurist Hollywood) of the 16-minute “guerilla” documentary film Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) that captured the “louder than life” personas of teenage heavy metal fans gathered in the parking lot of the Capital Centre, in Landover, Maryland, on 31 May 1986, prior to a Judas Priest arena concert. Drawing on cultural theories of distaste as a signifier of class distinctions and debates about paracinema fandom as a celebration of excess, the chapter explores how a discourse of “class disgust” bookends the cultural journey of the film, from the “leading” questions posed by the filmmakers to the cast of blue collar, burnout and “loser” characters that perform a “snapshot” of their lives in front of the camera, to the final resting place of this popular culture time-capsule as an educational research depository and art-house exhibit.
